The Club's Results

So generally the Pembroke Regatta races give a good indication as to how boats might do during Bumps.

Unfortunately due to problems with injury, and a squad so small that we could only rely on temporary subs, we took the decision to swap over 3 and 4, in the hope that this may work without having to lose people.

This was the second time that 3 or 4 had rowed on the other side, their first being in a tub a couple of days before, so it was a big ask to have their first VIII outing as the regatta race.

Quite simply, it didn't work. King's went off hard on the start and had 3/4 of a length on us, and any time we started to make up ground we'd catch multiple small crabs which would set us back again. How we managed to only lose by a length I don't know.

The good thing to come out of it though I suppose was that it made many people think we were on our way down for Bumps, and because of that, we as a crew thought there wasn't much that we could lose. (Mark)

Got a length ahead off the start and sat there until near the end, spacking along at 37 with no real rhythm or power. (Alasdair)

Again, we quickly gained a length and pulled away too slowly, but this one was much better, a lot more cohesion and power in the boat. If Sonya's recording is to be believed it was about 15s faster than the first race. (Alasdair)

This one was against tougher opposition, but they didn't set off straight and so again we took an early lead and slowly stretched it out. The standard of rowing was again better than that of the previous race. (Alasdair)

This was to be the most difficult race of the day. Luckily their inability to steer even remotely straight off the start gave us a lead we eventually extended (more by sheer determination than good rowing). We beat them fair and square - without any 'cheating' by having peter in the boat or whoever all these supposed m1 rowers are.
Bring on the last week of training and hopefully we will kick some first eights' asses in Bumps.
And big thanks to Tom and Tom for coaching, Neil for keeping the boys dry and warm and everyone else cheering us on the bank. (Sonya)

Our strongest performance of the day. We took a length quickly and steadily pulled further and further ahead over the rest of the course.

All in all this was a deeply unpleasant day, but we made a lot of progress. Thanks to Coker for coaching the first race, Tom Rose for coaching everything and Neil for bringing dry kit (definitely the highlight of the day). (Alasdair)

This was our first crew attempt at a standing start, and this wasn't helped by the interesting call "Attention... ROW!" from the marshals. After having failed to take a first stroke, as a crew we were quite surprised to find ourselves ahead after less than 10 strokes. The rhythm felt all over the place, but we pulled away anyway, so how this crew supposedly beat us by 40s at Newnham we will never know!! (Louise)

Horrible, panicky, spacky, 6 different draw strokes type start and a good 40 or 50 more strokes before we settled into anything vaguely resembling a rythym. This didn't really matter as the opposition weren't up to much and we had clear water by the kink. After this we picked it up a bit and we're able to extend our lead over the rest of the course. (DM)

Great row girls!! This race felt good, the start was awesome and we pushed through Queen's at a powerful 32. They were left for dead. If we row like that in bumps, no crew around us should pose any serious problems! (Louise)

A much better start saw us fairly level after the first 30 strokes before we turned the screw and took them apart seat by seat. The boat felt like it was crusing pretty much the whole way at a nice 32, and some nice effective pushes saw us produce masses of clear water. Definitely our best row of the day and a good confidence booster. (DM)

We knew this was going to be tough as LMBC W2 have been performing well this term, and we panicked a bit of the start with the rate going high without the same power going down as earlier in the day. They pulled away from us on the reach, but there was some impressive commitment in our boat, especially after the railway bridge. We didn't give up and were gaining on them at the end. All in all, lots positives to get from this day, and we know what we have to work on to get our blades. (Louise)

As Louise says LMBC have been the dominant boat in our division all term so this was always going to be the most difficult race of the day. Our start was fine and we settled into a nice rhythm again, but the power wasn't there. Maggie went off very hard and opened up a good lead over the first half of the course. However, by the railway bridge they were dying and some committed pushes from us saw us close the gap a bit, but by this point it was too late.

Despite losing this was a very encouraging day and if we row as well as we did today then we should hopefully cause a lot of people a lot of trouble in bumps.

Thanks to Alex C for subbing in the last 2 races, everyone who supported on the bank, and to Louise and Katie for carrying me in and out of the boat. (DM)

Splatter horror rowing.

Panicked, spacky start with a "stride" into panicked, spacky rowing. Still, we were about 6 lengths up by the railway bridge so we wound it down to the finish.

Here's to rowing a lot better in the next few rounds! (Charles)

slightly better (Jij)

After the previous race, Ming succinctly assessed our performance as "If we row like that again, we're going to get dicked on".

Our first 20 strokes seemed to be reasonably effective because we took out about half a length very quickly. However once again we failed to settle into a reasonable rhythm, and although we stretched our lead to a length, we then allowed them to hold us there all the way down the reach, and even gain slightly around the railway bridge.

It ended up a reasonably comfortable victory, but our scrappy rowing made our lives much harder than they needed to be - the lack of water time really showed. (Charles)

Due to random and confusing reshuffling of the draw by Pembroke, we somehow ended up facing the fourth VIII even though we were supposed to meet in the final.

By this stage we were a bit ragged after 2 races and some hypothermia from wet kit and freezing conditions. The fourths, on the other hand, had received 2 byes due to incompetent opposition and were seriously up for some actual racing. More "interesting" organisation by Pembroke meant we were held at the start line for about 10 minutes, during which time some good banter was exchanged between the two crews - I think it's fair to say M4 won that particular battle.

Regarding the race itself, we knew that M4 were bigger and stronger than us, so our only advantage was our extra experience and (hopefully) better technique. Which was why it was a bit counterproductive to produce an even worse row than we did against Homerton.

Again we stretched out half a length at the start, but some seriously gutsy rowing by M4 meant they held us there for a long time. I actually thought we were at risk of losing it but a few strokes after the railway bridge, for whatever reason we finally extended our lead, and finished about a length up.

We may not have put in a good technical performance but it was certainly a very enthusiastically contested race on both sides. I'm sure with 2 more weeks of water time that M4 will be brutal opposition for their victims in the coming bumps. (Charles)

worst of the day (Jij)

best row of the day, still not satisfactory. (Jij)

We knew LMBC were the crew to beat in this division, so the only surprise was that we encountered them in the final rather than the semis. Since we had so far failed at finding any kind of rhythm, we decided to dispense with the usual stride, instead having Tom give repeated "down 2" calls which should come with increased power. Happily, this actually worked and we produced our best row of the day by miles.

Maggie had taken a few seats out of us by 30 strokes, but as we settled into a rhythm we began to hold them, and clung on all the way down the reach. Towards the end of the reach a call came for legs, and it worked as we slowly started clawing back the deficit. We had recovered to one seat down when, regrettably, there was a monumental blade clash. From my seat I saw Jij almost get KO'd by his blade, while behind me Ming caught a mini-crab. Once the dust had settled Maggie had a length on us, and since we were very closely matched in speed there was no hope of us recovering it.

However, it turns out that LMBC had been repeatedly infringing our line rather than the other way around, and so we were awarded the victory by default. This had been a great race and it's a pity it never reached its natural conclusion. I genuinely believed we were going to win with our final push, but now we'll never know! Maggie apologised for the way things turned out so there are no hard feelings, and I'm sure they're gutted to have lost it this way.

A big thank you to everybody who bankpartied us, and especially to Neil whose dry kit saved many of us (including me) from getting seriously ill before the last race. It was an incredibly exhausting and unpleasant day of racing, but somehow I've ended up with my first pot in 3 years of trying, so I can't deny being quite happy about that! (Charles)

This was a disappointing day for a crew who were up at 6.45am for their first race, only to find they had byes until nearly 3pm. After all that, the organisers had made a total mess of the draw and the immediately came up against our own M3, despite expecting to race them in the finals.

Nevertheless, i was pleasantly surprised by our first attempt at starts on the water and at the standard of paddling. The race itself had lots of guts, lots of guns, but unfortunately the rate was inconsistent. The start was clean enough, but the Gents just moved out in front. High spirits may have contributed to our blade clash on around the 10th stroke, but both crews recoevered quickly. M4 proved hard to shake off, and it wasnt until our push off the railway bridge that the technique finally gave way and M3 were able to extend their lead.

We need to get good quality water time to make sure we have a blazing start for bumps. With Jake and Richard back in the boat too I think that this m4 will be a force to be reckoneed with! Things cna only get better. (Emma)

Kings III didn't show, practiced starts twice instead, paddled home. (Alex)

Maggie V broke their boat. Apparently whilst spinning. Sat at side of regatta bantering, getting cold, and attempting to make head or tail of what the hell the organisers were doing. (Alex)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BPI-ezto4do

Poor Quality, but shows you weren't far off. (Thomas)

On a scale of 1-10, I'm sat around 0 with regards to how pleased I was with todays organisation and outcome.

Having said that, we had a committed row from the boat, and we showed that we have potential to be a formiddable opponent in Bumps, provided we get some water time between now and then.

We can improve a lot with relative ease - lets just concentrate on making it happen. (Alex)

This was a really good first race against daunting opposition. M5 may not be the biggest guys, but they certainly outrowed Fitz III, extending their lead steadily throughou the course. Fitz's unnerving shouting and attempts to push back were dealt with calmly and thye never really made headway. (Emma)

We couldn't have asked for more from the crew in this race. LMBC 3 can give our M4 and even M3 a bit of a run for their money, but the boys were unphased and had their best row of the day. The start was much better and stern pair did a great job keeping the rate high. Fitness was beginning to tell as we came round the bend at the railway bridge, however, and we lost it over the last thirty strokes or so. LMBC had by this time strung out their lead to a few lengths.

The Getting on Race is the big test now. Watching you from the bank i'm sure you can make it, but we'll need to move on from today amd hit this week's outings hard to make sure of the result we want. (Emma)